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Hi there,Thanks for the opportunity to tell my story. I have been SO foolish.

I am a gay man and had too much to drink at a cruising club, there was lots of oral sex with different guys, but my memory is unclear about any anal (me giving, not receiving), I think there could have been some and, if there was, I do not think it would have been protected. Every time I think about it ....

One week later, I had signs of STD infection in my penis and this was diagnosed soon after as penile gonorrhea, and treated with anti-biotics. A full sexual health screening at that time was otherwise negative.

Nearly one month after the night at the club, I came-down with sudden, weird diarrhoea (it was very pale and explosive and messy, sorry if too much detail), accompanied by general feeling of burning-up, mildly raised temperature (I think, I only had a basic thermometer), quite profuse sweating generally, including at night (it seemed to mostly be from the head and neck but made the top half of my body and sheets wet), fatigue and loss of appetite and weight.

The diarrhoea lasted for 3 days, but the other symptoms continued pretty constantly for over a month.

During the peak of these symptoms, I had two HIV tests, at 6 weeks and 7.5 weeks after the sex at the club, both negative. I believe the tests were so-called “4th Generation” and both done at the same clinic. The symptoms made me fear and almost prepare for the worst.

The symptoms are less now, but have still mostly continued in a milder form, accompanied by hoarseness and dry mouth with brownish tongue.

My doctor, who knows I am gay and who I told the background, says that’s the end of testing, that I’m HIV-negative, and the testing is just prolonging guilt and anxiety, whereas the sexual health clinic policy is another test at 12-13 weeks.

Clearly I know I might have had a high risk (very high risk?) exposure, especially knowing I got gonorrhea that night, and am really scared. I know I also feel even worse because, though I have been to places like that before, I’ve never got drunk to the extent that I don’t remember if I had penetrative sex or not. My own fault, I know ….

What do you know about tests like these and what do you think are the chances of them staying negative?

I'm sure they tested for everything they normally do the day they diagnosed and treated the gonorrhea - they certainly took enough bloods and swabs. I am vaccinated against Hepatitis A and B.

I just had a bad feeling about it all the next day and the oddness of the symptoms - especially the acute and weird diarrhoea that started things - and the continual night sweats are what really spooked me.

The two negative tests were 17 and 26 days into the start of me being ill. Surely, if those symptoms were actually due to early HIV infection, at least one of them would have reacted? My doctor said the hospital lab uses extremely accurate and sensitive tests. The symptoms are the body's response, aren't they?

As Andy pointed out you did the right thing by getting tested . Its unlikely your 6 week test will change but you must test again at 3 months to confirm the results .

I'm not making judgements but being drunk and having sex inst a recipe for avoiding HIV , its more than likely how I become poz . Its tough enough to make good choices in the heat of the moment when sober much less when you are high and uninhibited .

To agree to have unprotected intercourse is to consent to the possibility of being infected with an STI. Sex without a condom lasts only a matter of minutes, but hiv is forever.

Anyone who is sexually active should be having a full sexual health care check-up, including but not limited to hiv testing, at least once a year and more often if unprotected intercourse occurs.

If you aren't already having regular, routine check-ups, now is the time to start. As long as you make sure condoms are being used for intercourse, you can fully expect your routine hiv tests to return with negative results.

Don't forget to always get checked for all the other sexually transmitted infections as well, because they are MUCH easier to transmit than hiv. Some of the other STIs can be present with no obvious symptoms, so the only way to know for sure is to test.

Use condoms for anal or vaginal intercourse, correctly and consistently, and you will avoid hiv infection. It really is that simple!

Before the uncertainty of that night, I never had casual sex (except oral) that was unprotected, that's also part of what is so troubling. Yet nobody forced me.

And those weird symptoms .... why do people, even those who did not seem to have much of a risk, seem to experience them? I just hope and pray, Jeff, that you, Andy, and my doctor, are right.

My nieces had lice they picked up from kids at school . I heard about it standing in their kitchen , never touched the kids . I scratched and clawed for a week and had my barber friend look me over to confirm I didn't have lice . This is the same reason people sometime have physical symptoms due to psychological processes .

We are relying on peer reviewed science for our assessments . Due to the age of our moderator team we are also relying on a couple of hundred years collective experience in these matters ... ouch LOL .

I am a gay man, had far too much to drink at a cruising club in June this year, had lots of oral and quite probably at least brief insertive anal sex (me insertive). I am not circumcised and, in the circumstances, it would not have been protected.

A week later, I had signs of STD infection in my penis and this was diagnosed soon after as penile gonorrhea, and treated with anti-biotics. A full sexual health screening at that time was otherwise negative.

Nearly one month after the risky sex, I came-down with sudden, severe and weird diarrhoea, accompanied by general feeling of burning-up and mildly raised temperature, quite profuse sweating generally, including at night (it seemed to mostly be from the head and neck but made the top half of my body damp), fatigue and loss of appetite and weight.

The diarrhoea lasted for 3 days, but the other symptoms continued pretty constantly for over a month.

When I posted in August, I had had two HIV tests, at 6 weeks and 7.5 weeks after the sex at the club, both negative. I believe the tests were so-called “4th Generation” and both done at the same clinic. The symptoms made me fear and almost prepare for the worst.

The symptoms are less now, but some have continued in a milder form, especially sweating easily and excessively and feeling warm (and anxious!), accompanied by some hoarseness. My oral temperature seems to vary from about 97.5f/36.5c and 99.5f/37.5c between morning and evening. To me, this is on the high side of normal?

To bring things up-to-date, I had a further lab HIV test, at 86 days, again negative and, because it was short of three months, the clinic agreed to do another lab test earlier this week - 16 weeks after the risk. It was negative, too. I have not had any intervening exposure.

Maybe I have become a bit too interested in thorough reading of this website, but, while my negative tests should be very reassuring, I have been reading of a few individuals (I don't want to link to the threads because those concerned might not want me to do that) who tested negative over periods longer than three months, apparently without any intervening exposures, and then tested positive.

This has concerned me a lot!

I CAN pin-point an exact exposure (first week of June 2013) and suspicious symptoms.

If one was having actual symptoms of acute HIV infection, would they definitely be reflected in a positive test or tests soon afterwards?

The UK and other places seem to be quite adamant on 12 weeks / 3 months now being absolutely conclusive, regardless of the level of risk in the first place, but the US is not, is it?

Am I worrying unnecessarily when I have two negative tests at 12 weeks and 16 weeks respectively after my last exposure, in spite of the things I have mentioned above?

The cdc guidelines for testing are 6 weeks past exposure and again at 3 months . You have reliably tested HIV negative .

Please do not start other threads and only post in this one no matter how long its been between post . If you have trouble finding your thread go to your profile and select show own post and it will take you here .

Sorry, Jeff, I wasn't sure of the rules on that - would have saved me a lot of re-typing and editing if I'd known I could just reply to the original thread.

Anyway ....

I accept the negative test results - what spooks me is that a few people, on other forum areas on this website, appear to have tested negative over periods of time longer than 3 months, and then tested positive without any new intervening exposure, suggesting that 3 months is not always conclusive.

How come?

Can you or someone else comment on the issue of whether symptoms (if they were genuinely of acute HIV infection) would definitely result in a positive test/positive tests during or soon after? (I know you don't like discussing symptoms, it's a theoretical query.)

Im not aware of anyone who has taken more than 3 months to seroconvert unless thay are on harsh chemo treatments or have a certain autoimmune disorder . None of these apply to your case , you do not have HIV .

Please understand , we are volunteers that are qualified to do risk assessments , we cant chat about things you can Google yourself . If you cant accept your negative HIV status then you need help from a therapist for your phobia , we cant do that for you .

You have been given the facts and have tested negative repeatedly for HIV and you are still questioning the results , nothing we can say at this point is going to help you .

Sorry, Jeff, I wasn't sure of the rules on that - would have saved me a lot of re-typing and editing if I'd known I could just reply to the original thread.

Anyway ....

I accept the negative test results - what spooks me is that a few people, on other forum areas on this website, appear to have tested negative over periods of time longer than 3 months, and then tested positive without any new intervening exposure, suggesting that 3 months is not always conclusive.

How come?

Can you or someone else comment on the issue of whether symptoms (if they were genuinely of acute HIV infection) would definitely result in a positive test/positive tests during or soon after? (I know you don't like discussing symptoms, it's a theoretical query.)

Cheers.

I have followed this entire thread, as I am sure other moderators have as well. If anything Moderator Jeff said needed clarification one of us would have jumped in.

His assessment was spot on. You are reliably negative for HIV.

As for some people seroconverting after three months, it is likely you discovered a poorly written post, or someone who did not recall the incident that led to infection between testing windows. And often, newly diagnosed people make claims that simply are not scientifically accurate.

In the ten years giving risk assessment on this forum I have not encountered anyone who tested positive past three months' negative. The only people (and there have been less than five) who needed to test longer than three months have been people with VERY specific immune disorders (you would know, and your record of hospitalization would reflect that) or is currently undergoing chemotherapy that completely (though temporarily) destroys the immune system and the body's ability to create antibodies.

In short, you are completely, reliably HIV negative.

In the future, I urge you to read the sticky messages that appear at the top of the AM I INFECTED forum. They detail where you shoud/are allowed to post, explain the perameters of our abilities, and describe our limitations to assist with ongoing issues.

They are titled "Welcome! Please read this before posting" and, of course, "Pay for Participation."

Logged

"Many people, especially in the gay community, turn to oral sex as a safer alternative in the age of AIDS. And with HIV rates rising, people need to remember that oral sex is safer sex. It's a reasonable alternative."

If you don't want to comment further, I understand, but would be happy to hear others' perspectives on same.

Thanks, and sorry again about flouting any posting rules.

Cheers.

You realize thst there were several monhs past the lsst negive test and the positive one. May is four months from September. The window period is three months.

And for all we know, the individual could have had unprotected sex a week before his test in May, which would not have shown up under most tests. As he did not provide details of his exposure or pattern of behaviour, we might not ever know, as he does not remember.

Also, and this might come as a shock, not everyone on the internet, posting anonymously, tells the truth. Some forget. Some have memories dampened with drug or alcohol use. Some have shame.

Hie main point of the post was how his immune system was so quickly adversely affected by his diagnosis. This, while atypical, is not so uncommon as one might think. Many factors play into disease progression, which was the point of his post.

I would urge you to stop trawling the other forums to find examples to fuel your fears. Especially forums specifically for people who just tested positive and might not know any more about HIV than th average person.

That link did absolutely nothing to change my opinion.

You do not have HIV. I urge you to let go of this unwarrnted fear and move forward with your life.

Logged

"Many people, especially in the gay community, turn to oral sex as a safer alternative in the age of AIDS. And with HIV rates rising, people need to remember that oral sex is safer sex. It's a reasonable alternative."

I can see how this can all come across as "drama", but I had similar feelings of fear when an optician suspected I might have MS about six years ago. Of course, that was more easily and quickly put to bed.

Whereas, with this, knowing that I had done something risky (while stupidly getting drunk), getting the STD, getting suspiciously sick, then tests that needed to be done and then confirmed over lengthy periods of time, while not feeling 100% and building anxiety/depression, has all been of a different order.

I can see how this can all come across as "drama", but I had similar feelings of fear when an optician suspected I might have MS about six years ago. Of course, that was more easily and quickly put to bed.

Whereas, with this, knowing that I had done something risky (while stupidly getting drunk), getting the STD, getting suspiciously sick, then tests that needed to be done and then confirmed over lengthy periods of time, while not feeling 100% and building anxiety/depression, has all been of a different order.

Honestly, I do understand. HIV carries it's own, currently unique stigma. And information on the web can be all over the place. Obsolete, misleading, and patently false information exists, and much of it disguises itself as legitimate. Please understand that many sites are also aggregates - they parrot other information (some valid, some not) but then never bother to update when new information becomes available. That's frustrating, since HIV transmission theory only really began to be solid after the advent of antiviral therapy, and people began actually living long, healthy, sexual lives - often with persons of negative status.

Here we have tried to gather our information from the sources. Looking through peer-reviewed data, scientific journals, delving beyond assumptions and in some cases questioning them and their origins.

I am very proud of the work that has been done by people here to present the most current HIV information available. Of course we are not perfect. A new test might come out and somehow we will miss the information for a few months. But we are always trying to evaluate our information and determine (sometimes overturn) it's validity.

Of course, I am biased. But I am also a person who wanted the best information himself - so it behooved me to try, in the role of HIV transmission risk assessment, to provide that quality of information that was, and continues to be available to me.

I certainly hope we have been of help, and that you will recommend this site to the people you encounter.

Take care,

Jonathan

Logged

"Many people, especially in the gay community, turn to oral sex as a safer alternative in the age of AIDS. And with HIV rates rising, people need to remember that oral sex is safer sex. It's a reasonable alternative."

I will indeed recommend this site, and did of course make my own (very) small contribution to the running of it so that I could ask a few more questions.

If truth be told, so heightened has my anxiety been, and my body has felt so different since a few weeks after my serious risk, that there IS still doubt in my mind about my status (and I am not being deliberately dramatic in saying that). I would love not to be feeling this way!

Most especially, I regularly sweat easily and profusely, especially from the head and neck, so easily now, often apparently spontaneously, or when eating or drinking something warm. I never did that before, and there is no obvious explanation.

You speak about the mis-information all over the place. I can well-believe it!

Well, all my tests (42 days, 51 days, 86 days, 113 days after exposure) have been done at the same UK hospital lab, presumably using 4th generation tests. I don't know how accurate they are, at those timescales, or the odds of them being wrong, or not being sensitive enough to detect antibodies, or me not producing antibodies at any or all of those junctures. None of that information is (or can be) officially published.

So, yes, I am still very worried, in spite of rational reassurance to the contrary.

GN, you should be discussing your "symptoms" with your doctor if they continue. Our focus here is strictly on HIV and HIV is not your problem. There's nothing more we can do for you at this point on this site.

Good luck in finding out what is really source of your symptoms. It's not HIV.

Just as a "PS" to this, the nurse who took my bloods last week spoke to me today.

As well as confirming again the 16 week HIV Negative and telling me that no more testing is required, the blood tests for syphilis and hepatitis had also come back negative, as were the mouth swabs for other things.

So, some more possibilities for on-going symptoms to be discussed with my GP have been ruled-out.

Just as a "PS" to this, the nurse who took my bloods last week spoke to me today.

As well as confirming again the 16 week HIV Negative and telling me that no more testing is required, the blood tests for syphilis and hepatitis had also come back negative, as were the mouth swabs for other things.

So, some more possibilities for on-going symptoms to be discussed with my GP have been ruled-out.

I'm happy to hear that you finally know that you do not have HIV and can move on , best of luck .